My Industrial...AT LAST!

Ever since I was 14/15 I wanted my industrial done, after spending my IT lessons in school surfing BME and seeing a girl who worked in The Mirage in Las Vegas, USA who had the most perfect industrial I've ever seen!

When I was 17 two of my friends had theirs done, but sadly both of them took them out due to a fault by the piercer in my local town, who pierced them both with a too small barbell. I decided I wouldn't rush into getting it pierced, as I didn't want to pay £35/40 just to take it out and my parents didn't really want me to get it done. My mum's an ENT (ear, nose and throat) nurse and has warned me about the horrors of infected cartilage etc.

In September 2008 I moved out of the family home into Liverpool, which is about 25 minutes away to go to university, so I had some new found freedom. As my birthday is at the end of September I decided I'd get my industrial done as a birthday present to myself!!

On the 19th of September me and two new friends from uni decided to go into town after our lectures and on a spur of the moment I decided to get it pierced, and one of my friends (who is also quite partial to piercings) decided to get her forward/anti helix done.

We went into Stigmata on Bold Street, (which used to be the piercing place in the old Quiggins) which has a great reputation as both a piercing and tattoo place.

As it was a Friday lunchtime it was quite busy, so we waited for a while after paying which for me is quite bad as I start to worry, especially as I knew this piercing was going to be really painful (according to my friends and stories on BME.) After waiting for about 20 minutes I got called into the (exceptionally clean and sterile) piercing room. The piercer, whose name escapes me, had stretched my nose a few years previous, as it was originally pierced at 0.6mm and most nose studs are 1mm. From that experience I knew he knew what he was doing, was clean and a great piercer as he talked you through everything. He informed me that he pierces industrials with a plastic bar, as to allow more movement when it is healing and he was then able to measure the 'barbell' and cut it to the size of my ear.

He measured my barbell up and marked me up, and then I was able to take a look at the placement. When I had decided it was fine, I lay back down and waited for the pain! He did the top hole first, and it was really quite sore, but bearable and the second hole wasn't much different. He put the bar in (which didn't hurt) and I was done! For once I didn't bleed much, so I wasn't feeling at all woozy. He gave me an aftercare booklet and told me to use Johnson's Baby Shampoo for a while, to make sure it didn't get infected.

I then went back into the waiting room, were my friends took a good look at it, then I waited while my friend got her piercing done. It started to burn (which most of my piercings do) so we decided to head down to subway after my friend was done to get some full fat coke and a decent sandwich!

I followed the aftercare instructions as per usual and used the shampoo for about a month after it was pierced. It started to heal nicely apart from a random outburst of bleeding the night I got it done while I was out having a meal for my birthday!

Unfortunately the holes started to produce keloids and my skin was 'granulating' (growing) over my bar. Sometimes my ear was fine, and looked like it was starting to heal again, but then I would knock it and it would flare up again and look really bad.

After about two months I went back to the shop were another piercer told me that it was just my body's way of coping with things (such as strong shampoo) in the holes by trying to push it out hence the keloids and granulating. She told me to go and get a cream which can only be prescribed by my doctor called fucilin. I did as I was told, as I really didn't want to take it out and my doctor (although not a big fan of piercings as he told me) prescribed me the cream and antibiotics to fight skin infections. I followed the instructions and within two days my ear was practically healed!! It's been just under two weeks since I got the cream and I've been using it religiously to make sure my industrial heals nicely and it really seems to be working, so hopefully I will soon be able to get my bar changed to a metal one : )

Even though I've had some problems, they've not been major and were easy to overcome. I love my industrial, and I would suggest the piercing to anyone, as long as they have the patience to properly look after it to prevent any nasty infections! I would also suggest Stigmata in Liverpool to anyone for piercings as they really care about their work and help you with any problems you may have.

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submitted by: Anonymouson: 21 Dec. 2008in
Ear Piercing

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Artist: +Studio: StigmataLocation: Liverpool

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